


Staying

by KuroFae



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Blood and Gore, Developing Relationship, Fluff, M/M, POV Second Person, but it's metaphorical still the piece is super soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:15:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26588734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuroFae/pseuds/KuroFae
Summary: Cecil gets you on the air for the first time a week after your first date.
Relationships: Carlos/Cecil Palmer
Comments: 3
Kudos: 30





	Staying

Cecil gets you on the air for the first time a week after your first date.

He’d been asking since the first day you arrived in town. You went to the radio station with a burning curiosity and a convenient excuse to cover it and Cecil saw through you the moment you stepped over the threshold into the booth. He’d grinned at you, and you kind of grimaced back, and when he asked you to stay - not to stay for an interview, although you heard on the radio later that was his unvoiced intention - but to just _stay_ , you, shy and overwhelmed and already tripping over your own brainstem trying to justify the intensity and depth of your feelings for him, had said no. 

In the end you do stay. But it takes a year to come to terms with the fact that you want to.

Cecil asked you to interview with him other times - nearly every time you met - but you still said no.

The truth is, you weren’t sure how well you could continue to hide from your own love for him if your knees were brushing in a broadcasting booth and his voice was pulling answers softly from your lips. You’re a strong man, but you’re still just a man, and sometimes when Cecil looked at you for a couple seconds too long you felt the urge to let your love take root. You wanted to let the blood vessels on the surface of your heart weave out through your ribs so you could reach into your chest and pull them free. You wanted to take them and knot yourself to the entirety of Night Vale; to tie your viscera to streetlights and let your blood run down into gutters. You wanted to tether yourself to this town, to his home, and to him. What were secrets you kept locked away in comparison to your lifeblood? You would surely let them loose; admit to the entire town, and to him, how you truly felt. So, you, shy and strong but still human and cautious, kept turning him down.

This time, though, the secrets are already out and tangled into the complicated patterns of the lights above the Arby's, and your legs are tangled with his under the afghan your aunt knitted for you as a graduation gift. His hand is running through your hair and your lips are pressed against the flutter of his pulse, and he asks you to come on the show, and you press your entire chest against his. You let your hearts beat against each other, as close as they can get without the biting pain of vivisection. You tie your entirety to him; to whatever it is you two have. And you say yes.

Cecil giggles across from you, headphones on and glasses catching the lights of the soundboard. The metal frames glint in the dimmed overhead light as he ducks his head to rest his cheek on his hand, leaning across the table and into your space.

“Lastly, Carlos,” he says, and your name sounds like commitment on his tongue, “What is your greatest weakness?”

You place one hand on his cheek; a tether, and another on the table; a grounding line, and lean around the microphone to meet him.

“You,” you say, and you kiss him softly, and you stay.

**Author's Note:**

> Entirely inspired by [this post](https://youre-so-tragic.tumblr.com/post/629890544558014464/stupickleshomicidesimulator-interviewer-what).


End file.
